Alibi High

I changed into jeans and a T-shirt, pulled steaks from the freezer for dinner and was peeling potatoes when I heard the tires of Johnny's van crunch against the gravel driveway. Shouts echoed in the early evening late afternoon breeze and I saw Johnny through the window of the back door.

I pulled the door open. “Right on time. Thank you for brin g ing them early.”

“No problem at all ,” he said, smiling. “I told them all to hit the trampoline because I wanted to talk to you for a second. You have a minute some time ?”

“Sure,” I said, waving him into the kitchen. I grabbed my peeler and went back to skinning the potatoes at the counter. “What's up?”

He closed the door behind him and glanced toward the front of the house. “Is Emily home yet?”

I shook my head. “No. She went to Bailey's house after school. Did you need her?”

“No,” he said, leaning back against the door. “Just didn't think I should talk about this in front of her.”

I set the peeler down on the counter next to the wet potatoes. “Well, that sounds serious.”

He shrugged. “Not so much serious, as just, I don't know. Just probably something you might not want her to hear.”

“Me?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I've, uh, been asking around. About those computers from her school.”

I brushed off my hands, stray peels falling onto the cutting board. “Okay.”

“I'm on all sorts of online forums,” he explained. “With other IT guys and stuff. You can pretty much find out anything you need to know. Good resources for work-related stuff and goof around stuff, too. Like fantasy football.”

I laughed. “Okay.”

He kind of smiled. “Got ta have fun, too, right? Anyway, I've been looking around in the forums, just checking to see if anything popped up that looked a little weird or whatever.” He adjusted his glasses. “And I'm pretty sure I found something.”

A tiny knot tied itself in my stomach. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Sort of a guy I know. Just from the forums. But I knew he was local. He was offering up some things for sale that sounded pretty similar to what you said was taken from Prism.” He paused. “I'm not totally sure, but it sounds an awful lot like what you told me and like he's trying to move them.”

I reached for a dish towel and dried off my hands. “Did you talk to him?”

“Sorta,” Johnny said. “I didn't wanna be overt about it. So I tried to be cool, just act ed like I was interested in what he was selling, that kind of thing.” He paused. “I've watched a lot of spy movies, so I think I pulled it off.”

“Spy movies?”

“Sure,” he said, adjusting the glasses again. “James Bond, that kind of stuff. I know how to play it cool and not give it all away.”

“Um, okay,” I said, trying hard to picture Johnny as James Bond. “Wow. Okay.”

He shrugged. “I wasn't exactly sure what I should do, so I figured I'd tell you. We could call the police and let them talk to the guy. If he'd meet with them. I'm not sure he would, though.”

If he the online guy was trying to sell stolen computers on some sort of underground black market, I was pretty sure he wouldn't be open to a meet up with the police. If anything, he'd probably disappear if he got wind of anything like that.

“He probably wouldn't,” I said. “Would he meet you?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Me? I'm not sure. Maybe.”

I knew I was entering what Jake called The Daisy Danger Zone, where my ideas carried me maybe a little further than the rational person would go. I wasn't a police officer and I wasn't exactly sure what I'd do if I found out the guy Johnny was talking about was the one that who stole Prism's computers, but in my head, it made sense to me that it might be good to know who that person was and if I knew who he was then I could report him to the police.

Or something like that.

“Try,” I said. “See if he'll meet with you ? . ”

“Right now?”

“Sure,” I said. “Can you?”

He whipped out his phone and started tapping away at the screen. “Of course. Man, being a spy is kinda fun, you know?”

I went back to my potatoes, grabbing the grater and peeling the skin from the remaining potatoes tubers , trying to get my head straight while Johnny typed away on his phone. What if the guy said yes? Where would I meet him? Then what would I do? The knot in my stomach starting bouncing around like a pinball.

“And can you maybe not tell Brenda I'm doing this?” he aske d, d quietly. “She's not really down with my spy aspirations.”

“Our secret,” I said, thinking I might have to ask him the same thing so that Jake didn't commit me to an asylum.

“Thanks,” he said, still staring at the screen and tapping away. “Will save me some grief.” He paused and then glanced at me. “I need to make a quick call. Is that alright?”

“Sure.”

He walked into the living room, his f eet ootsteps echoing on the hardwood floors.

I pulled a large pot from the cupboard and filled it with water, then set it on the stove. I heard Johnny's voice on the other side of the house, but couldn't make out the words. I didn't know if he was talking to the guy he'd communicated with online, someone else for work , or with Brenda. I tried to focus on my potatoes.

He was back a minute later. “ Um, okay. So I talked to him.”

“And?”

“He'll meet with me,” Johnny said, fidgeting with his glasses. “I told him there'd probably be another person there. Meaning you. And I just told him I was interested in buying what he was selling.”

I gripped the potato in my hand. “ Alright. Wow. Really? We can meet with him.”

“Yep.”

I immediately had wild thoughts of recovering the computers, canceling the talent show and being done with the whole fiasco. I wasn't sure how that was all going to come to fruition just from meeting some random guy and pretend ing like we wanted to buy some stolen computers, but I wasn't really dealing with reality at that moment.

“One catch, though,” Johnny said.

“A catch?”

“Yeah.”

“What is it?'

He adjusted his glasses. “We have to go meet with him right now.”

THIRTY FIVE

“This is ridiculous,” I said, staring out the passenger window of Johnny's mini-van.

I'd set the potatoes aside, called of the kids in the house and told Will he was in charge because Johnny and I needed to go run an errand.

“What kind of an errand?” he 'd asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Just...an errand.”

“Does Jake know?”

“No. He won't be home for a bit and we'll be back before he gets here.”

“Why doesn't he know?”

I sighed, exasperated. “Because he doesn't. So you are in charge until I get back. Got it?”

He clicked his tongue. “I feel like there should be some compensation. Being in charge of all these kids is kind of a big deal. If anything were to happen. Or, say, Jake called — ”

“Ten bucks,” I said. “Payable when I get back.”

“Deal,” he said, grinning. “Enjoy your errands.”

So after I was done dealing with the Junior Extortionist, Johnny and I hopped in his mini-van and headed for the meetup with his contact. Which made it sound like we were actually spies. Or mildly insane.

“What is ridiculous ?” Johnny asked, focusing on the traffic on Main Street.

“This,” I said, waving a hand in front of me. “Going to meet with some guy about some stolen computers. We don't even know th at they are ey're the Prism ones and even if they are, what are we going to do about it? Make a citizen's arrest?”

“Is that a real thing? A citizen's arrest?”

“I have no idea.”

He laughed and changed lanes, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Well, we can turn around and go back. We don't have to go.”

I sighed. I knew that. I also knew we wouldn't. I had already committed to the insanity and there wasn't any turning back. My curiosity always won out. Maybe Jake was right. Maybe I really would have to look into getting my private investigator's license. Or my spy card.